Hand painted superwash merino in Blueberry from Cat Mountain Fiber Arts. Spun up this summer to celebrate the fact that I had finally finished spinning a bajillion skeins of white yarn. Recently sent off to a deserving knitter as part of a gift exchange.

Notes: This was a really nicely written pattern. I learned Judy’s magic cast on for it, which is a pretty neat little trick. It’s top down and seamless with raglan shaping – one of my favorite types of construction to knit. The hood is adorable – seriously, I want to put hoods on everything I knit now. The woven basket stitch on the button band it quite pretty. The only thing I wish I had changed is the length. SweetP is on the tall side and he’d be able to wear this longer if I had made it longer in the body. Of course, he currently has zero interest in wearing it at all so it might be a moot point. Toddlers, right? Oh well.

Yarn: Odds and ends of Patons Classic Wool/Merino/Worsted (as far as I can tell, they’re the same yarn that has been renamed and given a new label design)(77208 Jade Heather, 77307 Plum Heather, 77532 Congnac Heather, 00208 Burgundy) and Lion Wool (discontinued)(123 Sage) held double.

Notes: I started these almost exactly a year ago. They were easy enough to knit, and would have been easier if I had actually used normal quantities of the weight of yarn that the pattern calls for instead of fiddling with odds and ends held double. I got bogged down in the seaming though and stopped halfway through sewing up the first slipper. Silly, considering that it only took me one afternoon to finish when I finally pulled them out again this year. The verdict? The construction is interesting, but I don’t love them. They felted up sort of short and wide – a little too hobbit-foot-like for my taste. Oh well. They’re done now and they’ll do for keeping my feet warm.

Notes: I knit these in a week for a sock-off and I’m very pleased about how quickly they went and how comfy they are. I’m going to have to do more worsted weight socks. I learned how to do a German twisted cast on for these and it’s my new favorite cast on. These were also my first pair of top down socks unless you count the pair of Fuzzy Feet I made a billionty years ago. So lots of learning going on here. Overall I enjoyed the pattern. The slip stitch diamond design was fun to knit and adds some visual interest to a solid colored yarn. I just had a couple of slight issues. First, the way the pattern is written for the heel flap is not super clear for someone who isn’t already familiar with knitting heel flaps (says the top down, heel flap knitting newbie). Second, the pattern calls for 168 yards of yarn. I had 184 yards and still had to do the last three inches or so of each toe in scrap yarn. Oh well, it won’t show with shoes on.

Not much blogging, but a fair amount of knitting going on around here lately. I’m going to try to do a bunch of FO Friday posts to wrap things up before the end of the year. In the meantime, it’s a sock-off! A completely pointless and arbitrary race to knit a pair of socks in a week? Yes please! The deadline is Friday and I’m halfway there. Knit knit knit!

PS: Ignore the toe. I had more yarn than the pattern called for. The pattern lied.